melanie jean juneau

Some people scoff, others think that miracles are relegated to biblical times but others have experienced inexplicable events that can only be called miraculous.

Sometimes God snags a sceptic with a powerful surprise physical healing. This blows up the poor guys world view and suddenly he realizes that there actually is a God who loves him. These kinds of miracles are pure gift.

Another kind of miracle happens when we are desperate, without recourse to any other solution to solve our problem. Then the Father supplies our needs. As parents of a large family we depend on Him to supply a lot of the basic necessities. Not our wants but our needs. Even our sceptical children concede that this is true.

We were completely oblivious at first to the fact that we were part of an unexpected miracle last winter. In mid January when our furnace was serviced for its annual cleaning, the repairman red tagged our oil tank. This was just before the tank needed another delivery of oil. Red tagged means it is an environmental risk and it is illegal for any company to fill it with oil. The last oil delivery was December 11, 2010. Since Michael’s uncle had a one year-old tank worth $2,000.00 to give us if we could hold out to the spring, we decided to try to heat with wood.

In case you don’t know, we live in Canada. It is cold here in the winter, very cold. Although we did keep the thermostat at 18 C (66 F) instead of 20 -21 C (70 F), we burned wood at the far end of the house. The original family built this house in 1886. We put insulation in the attic, the previous owner added a plastic vapour barrier to cut the wind but it takes a lot of fuel to keep this house habitable.

So we worried about how long the oil would last. Of course we were on edge and kept dashing downstairs to look at the fuel gauge.

The needle moved incredibly slowly if at all.

Maybe the repairman accidental broke oil gauge.

It was a mild winter but still we had the oil tank filled on December 11, 2010!

We usually topped it up every three weeks when it was really cold outside.

THAT OLD FURNACE JUST NEVER STOPPED RUNNING!

It was quite disconcerting.

Finally near the end of February we relaxed and enjoyed this unexpected miracle right into April.

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Published by melanie jean juneau

Melanie Jean Juneau serves as the Editor in Chief of Catholic Stand. She is a mother of nine children who has edited her kid's university term papers for over a decade. She blogs at joy of nine9 and mother of nine9. Her writing is humorous and heart warming; thoughtful and thought-provoking. Part of her call and her witness is to write the truth about children, family, marriage and the sacredness of life. Melanie is the administrator of ACWB, a columnist at CatholicLane, CatholicStand, Catholic365 , CAPC, author of Echoes of the Divine and Oopsy Daisy, and coauthor of Love Rebel: Reclaiming Motherhood.
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